{"title":"\"Format of Regional Cooperation in Statu Nascendi: Origins and Functioning of the Three Seas Initiative in Central Europe\"","authors":"Łukasz Lewkowicz","doi":"10.31577/sps.2023-1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2023-1.2","url":null,"abstract":"The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a relatively young format of regional cooperation in Central Europe. It is an example of multilateral diplomacy carried out by heads of state. The main goal of 3SI’s activity is the development of energy, transport and digital infrastructure in the region. In recent years, the extension of the subjective and objective scope of the Three Seas cooperation has been noticeable. The governments of the Initiative countries are becoming more and more important, while the business, expert and social components are strengthening. External actors with the status of observer or participating partner are also of strategic importance for the functioning of 3SI: the US, the European Commission, Germany and Ukraine. The aim of the article is to analyze the origins and functioning of 3SI in the years 2016-2022.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43860099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Machiavelli and Nietzsche on Secularization and the Omnipotence of Human Government\"","authors":"William Wood","doi":"10.31577/sps.2023-1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2023-1.1","url":null,"abstract":"The study deals with Machiavelli’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s understanding of secularization from a comparative perspective. It sheds light on the differences and similarities in their view. They have had a very distinct understanding of secularization. Although there are four centuries between the two philosophers, the estimation of the nature and consequences of mass secularization is very similar. For both of them, secularization gives rise to secular substitutes for traditional religions, especially political substitutes. But even secularized societies would necessarily remain “religious”. This study also shows differences in the analysis of the phenomenon of secularization. Machiavelli relied on his knowledge of politics and the nature of mankind. Nietzsche, on the other hand, focused on the world around him.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49539978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"What Distinguishes Slovak Populism from the Western European Variants? Slovakia in Comparison With Austria\"","authors":"Hana Antal","doi":"10.31577/sps.2023-1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2023-1.3","url":null,"abstract":"The study examines the peculiarities of populism in Slovakia, which distinguish it from populisms in Western European countries. To show the differences, Slovak populists are compared with those from Austria, with examples from the political discourses on the refugee crisis and on minorities being brought in. The similarities and differences are elaborated by looking at three central characteristics of populism: flexibility and variability of the content of populism, political relevance, and graduality and non-binarity. The comparative perspective shows that these universal features of populism are particularly pronounced in Slovakia. Although Slovakia and Austria have both very distinctive experiences with politically successful populists, the populisms in the two countries are not the same. The comparison brings to light the differences between the post-socialist political landscapes on the one hand and the Western ones on the other, which are reflected in the different manifestations of populism in Slovakia and in Austria.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45447652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"X-raying Citizenship Participation through the Lens of ICT: Quest for Democratic Governance and Development in Nigeria","authors":"K. W. Olawoyin","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-2.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-2.3","url":null,"abstract":"The study looks at citizen participation through the lens of information and communication technology. The questionnaire was administered using a mixed approach method on local council ICT officers, registered voters, local non-governmental community and youth leaders, and key informant interviews with officers of ICT organisations. For the quantitative design, a questionnaire was given to 418 respondents, and 18 essential informants were purposefully interviewed. The data were analysed with SPSS; tables were used for correlation co-efficient analysis, and content analysis presented the interview responses. ICT and public participation in municipal governance had a positive correlation of +0.629, according to the findings. The study finds that ICT tools will improve local governance in rural areas for long-term democratic good governance and development.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46368352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Irrational Attraction of Rationality","authors":"D. Dobiáš","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-2.2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41728906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining the Gendered Regime of Slovak Cabinet Appointments Using a Feminist Institutionalist Perspective","authors":"Silvia Hudáčková","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-2.1","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, I am applying the feminist institutionalist model developed by Annesley et al. (2019) to analyze cabinet formation in three Slovak governments by focusing on the actors, formal and informal rules, and the process of ministerial selection. By interviewing political actors who participated in the cabinet formation, I am uncovering which type of criteria—experiential, affiliational, or representation-al—are decisive in selecting a ministrable. It is the affiliational criteria that were decisive in most of the cases of ministerial selection in Slovakia, as the need for experience is a prescriptive but very flexible criterion that can be disregarded when needed. On the other hand, representational criteria played no role in cabinet formation in Slovakia. Consequently, this study reveals how the interplay of formal and informal norms and rules maintains a gendered regime of ministerial selection that conserves the political disadvantage of women in Slovak cabinets. The characteristics of an institutional setting, such as that of the party system, play an important role in the gendered regime as well. A small number of portfolios and a high number of parties in coalitions create conditions where only a few party leaders are usually appointed to the cabinet. Weak party organizations, lack of women’s organizations within parties, and the absence of conviction among the selectors highlighting the benefits of gender equality offer little hope for the future improvement of gender balance in Slovak cabinets.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44239173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Revolúcia, transformácia a rola subjektu. Kritické poznámky ku knihe Françoisa Julliena Tiché Premeny \"","authors":"Ľubomír Dunaj","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-1.3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45655018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"The Emergence of the First Post-November System of Hungarian Political Parties in Slovakia\"","authors":"Zuzana Mészárosová-Lampl","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-1.2","url":null,"abstract":"The so-called post-November system of Hungarian parties in what was then Czechoslovakia was established after the change in the political system in November 1989 and in the first months of 1990. It consisted of three political entities: Independent Hungarian Initiative, Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement, and the movement Coexistence. Although they distanced themselves from using the word “party” in their name, they truly were political parties that ran for parliamentary representation in the first free elections in June 1990 at the time representing the Hungarian community of more than 500 000 members in Slovakia. In her study, the author describes many hitherto unknown circumstances of the origin of these parties. In addition to contemporary documents, media appearances and other sources, the study also relies on commemorative interviews with party representatives.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47239661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Communicating the Climate Change: The Role of Experts and Policy Makers\"","authors":"Lenka Diener","doi":"10.31577/sps.2022-1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2022-1.1","url":null,"abstract":"Science experts play important role in spreading the science-related knowledge that can improve societal outcomes by guiding policy in transformative way. Experts communication and its influence on policy decision-makers is particularly important topic when it comes to problems of climate change. This paper explore how European citizens perceive the role of experts and policy makers in science communication in climate change topic. It is based on the international research analysing European citizen’s perception of science communication to better understanding of how beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science-related issues originate among EU citizens and to enquire their proposals for enhancing the quality of science communication. The findings of this paper come from studies performed within a European project entitled CONCISE which was carried out in five European countries (Portu-gal, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Poland) based on qualitative research method - public consultation. The pur-pose of this paper is to review the existing structural obstacles that experts and policymakers, currently face when attempting to communicate the climate change successfully and to present the main findings from public consultation about the main proposals for experts and policy makers in communicating the climate change to public.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41472890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media Sources Shared and Networking on Facebook. A Comparative Perspective","authors":"Andrej Školkay, A. Marincea","doi":"10.31577/sps.2021-3.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31577/sps.2021-3.4","url":null,"abstract":"Populist leaders tend to be more popular and more followed than their parties or movements. Exceptions, like Igor Matovič, or Jaroslaw Kaczynski, confirm the rule. The major differences in party versus leader ́s popularity („likes“) could be found for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Matteo Salvini, Alexis Tsipras and their respective parties. These three leaders were clearly FB stars (with caveat that Tsipras was actually not populist in his communication) and their parties seemed to be much less relevant for those who used FB. The most negative significant divergence in popularity on FB between a party and a party leader was noticed in the case of PiS and Jaroslaw Kaczyński. Kaczyński ́s FB page could be called as a niche phenomenon in Polish political communication. Also, Kaczyński was the least frequent actual user of FB among party leaders as well as the leader with the lowest popularity („likes“ in absolute and relative numbers) among political leaders in our sample among FB users. Similarly, FB seemed to be a rather irrelevant tool for PiS considering its FB popularity, although PiS actually communicated quite actively on this platform. While populists tend to be associated with alternative, highly biased, radical or conspiratorial media sources, the analyses in the national case studies showed that these types of sources were exceptions rather than the norm in almost all cases. The most often shared sources were digital sources or social networks. The least often shared were radio or TV channels. The rather ambiguous ideology promoted by Luigi di Maio and Boris Kollár was also reflected in their preferences for ideologically diverse media sources.","PeriodicalId":34402,"journal":{"name":"Studia Politica Slovaca","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43973519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}